CHAPTER FIFTEEN

第十五章THE LAUNCH

麦 金塔电脑的发布

A Dent in the Universe

在宇宙中留下印迹

The “1984” ad

Real Artists Ship

真正的艺术家总能完成作品

The high point of the October 1983 Apple sales conference in Hawaii was a skit based on a TV show called The Dating Game. Jobs played emcee, and his three contestants, whom he had convinced to fly to Hawaii, were Bill Gates and two other software executives, Mitch Kapor and Fred Gibbons. As the show’s jingly theme song played, the three took their stools. Gates, looking like a high school sophomore, got wild applause from the 750 Apple salesmen when he said, “During 1984, Microsoft expects to get half of its revenues from software for the Macintosh.” Jobs, clean-shaven and bouncy, gave a toothy smile and asked if he thought that the Macintosh’s new operating system would become one of the industry’s new standards. Gates answered, “To create a new standard takes not just making something that’s a little bit different, it takes something that’s really new and captures people’s imagination. And the Macintosh, of all the machines I’ve ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard.”

1983年10月，苹果公司在夏威夷举行销售会议，乔布斯上演了一出根据电视节目《约会游戏》改编的小品剧，掀起了会议的髙潮。乔布斯扮演主持人，三位“单身汉嘉宾”分别是比尔·盖茨和另外两位软件领域的高管——米切尔·卡普尔（MitchKapor）与弗雷德·吉本斯（FredGibbons）。开场音乐演奏完毕，三位嘉宾就座并进行自我介绍。盖茨看上去就像个髙二的学生，他说“微软期望1984年全年收入的一半都来自为麦金塔电脑研发的软件”。台下750名苹果销售人员对他的话报以热烈掌声。乔布斯胡子刮得很干净，精神饱满，他笑着问盖茨是否认为麦金塔电脑的新操作系统会成为行业的新标准之一。盖茨答道：“要创建新标准并非只做出一点不同的东西就够了，而是需要真正全新且能抓住人们想象力的东西。在我见过的所有机器中，只有麦金塔电脑符合这一标准。”

But even as Gates was speaking, Microsoft was edging away from being primarily a collaborator with Apple to being more of a competitor. It would continue to make application software, like Microsoft Word, for Apple, but a rapidly increasing share of its revenue would come from the operating system it had written for the IBM personal computer. The year before, 279,000 Apple IIs were sold, compared to 240,000 IBM PCs and its clones. But the figures for 1983 were coming in starkly different: 420,000 Apple IIs versus 1.3 million IBMs and its clones. And both the Apple III and the Lisa were dead in the water.

尽管盖茨当时如此表示，但是微软正逐渐褪去苹果主要合作者的身份，而更多地以竞争对手的姿态出现。微软仍将继续为苹果公司编写应用软件，如Word，但是其快速增长的那部分收入则来自为IBM个人电脑所编写的操作系统。1982年，苹果个人电脑AppleII的销量为27.9万台，IBM个人电脑及其同类产品共售出24万台。1983年的数据则呈现了大逆转：AppleII电脑销量42万台，IBM个人电脑及其同类产品销量130万台，而AppleIII电脑和丽萨电脑都彻底失败。

Just when the Apple sales force was arriving in Hawaii, this shift was hammered home on the cover of Business Week. Its headline: “Personal Computers: And the Winner Is . . . IBM.” The story inside detailed the rise of the IBM PC. “The battle for market supremacy is already over,” the magazine declared. “In a stunning blitz, IBM has taken more than 26% of the market in two years, and is expected to account for half the world market by 1985. An additional 25% of the market will be turning out IBM-compatible machines.”

就在苹果销售人员抵达夏威夷参加销售会议时，《商业周刊》（BusinessWeek）当期的封面报道凸显了这一形势转变，其标题为：“个人电脑：赢家是……IBM”。文章详细介绍了IBM个人电脑的崛起。“对市场主导杈的争夺已经结束，”《商业周刊》宣布，“通过惊人的闪电出击，用两年的时间获取了超过26%的个人电脑市场份额。同时预计到1985年，该公司将占领全球一半的市场。IBM兼容机则将占据25%的市场份额。”

That put all the more pressure on the Macintosh, due out in January 1984, three months away, to save the day against IBM. At the sales conference Jobs decided to play the showdown to the hilt. He took the stage and chronicled all the missteps made by IBM since 1958, and then in ominous tones described how it was now trying to take over the market for personal computers: “Will Big Blue dominate the entire computer industry? The entire information age? Was George Orwell right about 1984?” At that moment a screen came down from the ceiling and showed a preview of an upcoming sixty-second television ad for the Macintosh. In a few months it was destined to make advertising history, but in the meantime it served its purpose of rallying Apple’s demoralized sales force. Jobs had always been able to draw energy by imagining himself as a rebel pitted against the forces of darkness. Now he was able to energize his troops with the same vision.

这一切都令将于3个月后（即1984年1月）发布的麦金塔电脑压力更大，它将成为扭转败局的关键。在销售会议上，乔布斯决定全力以赴，一决髙下。他走上台，历数IBM自1958年以来的所有失误，然后他的声音里带着可怖的意味开始描述IBM正如何试图主宰整个个人电脑市场：“我们能让IBM主宰整个电脑产业吗？我们能让控制整个信息时代吗？乔治·奥威尔在《1984》中的描述会成真吗？”话音刚落，一块屏幕徐徐落下，播放了一段专为麦金塔电脑制作的广告片，这则即将推出的60秒广告有点儿科幻电影的意味。在数月之后，这则广告注定要名垂史册。但当时，它凝聚了苹果公司销售人员低落的士气。一直以来，乔布斯都将自己想象成一个抗击黑暗势力的反叛者，并从中获取能量。现在，他也这样激发自己的团队。

There was one more hurdle: Hertzfeld and the other wizards had to finish writing the code for the Macintosh. It was due to start shipping on Monday, January 16. One week before that, the engineers concluded they could not make that deadline.

不过当时还有一个障碍。赫茨菲尔德和其他工程师必须完成麦金塔电脑的编程工作，而程序已定于1月16日（周一）交付运行，距离交付日只剩一周的时候，工程师们认为他们无法按时完成工作。程序还存在一些毛病。

Jobs was at the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan, preparing for the press previews, so a Sunday morning conference call was scheduled. The software manager calmly explained the situation to Jobs, while Hertzfeld and the others huddled around the speakerphone holding their breath. All they needed was an extra two weeks. The initial shipments to the dealers could have a version of the software labeled “demo,” and these could be replaced as soon as the new code was finished at the end of the month. There was a pause. Jobs did not get angry; instead he spoke in cold, somber tones. He told them they were really great. So great, in fact, that he knew they could get this done. “There’s no way we’re slipping!” he declared. There was a collective gasp in the Bandley building work space. “You guys have been working on this stuff for months now, another couple weeks isn’t going to make that much of a difference. You may as well get it over with. I’m going to ship the code a week from Monday, with your names on it.”

当时，乔布斯正在曼哈顿的君悦酒店（GmndHyatt）为媒体沟通会作准备，因此，同工程师的电话会议就定在周日上午进行。软件经理镇定地向乔布斯说明了情况，赫茨菲尔德和其他人都围着电话，屏息凝神。他们只要求将期限延长两周，公司可以先给经销商一个“演示版”软件，只要新程序在这个月底完成，就能马上进行替换。片刻沉默之后，乔布斯并没有生气。相反，他用冷静低沉的语调告诉工程师们他们真的很棒。事实上，这些人的确非常棒，乔布斯相信他们能够搞定。“我们决不会推迟！”他郑重声明。电话另一头，班德利大楼工作间里的工程师们都倒吸了一口气。“这个东西你们已经做了好几个月了，再多两个星期也不会有很大差别。你们还是赶快把它做完。我会在一周后将你们的程序交付运行，上面会标有你们的名字。”